Tag Archives: King Ceolwulf of Mercia

Over the past few years we’ve been following the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, seeing how our units would react to the events of the 870s. In 2014 we lived through King Burhred’s expulsion from Mercia in 874, as the Viking Great Army installed the puppet king Ceolwulf to rule Mercia but lost their unifying leader Ivar ‘The […]

First, a quote from a surviving fragment of the Chronicle of St Albans (sadly lost at the dissolution of the monasteries…) “AD 874. Here the Great Army came into Mercia and took winter quarters at Repton. And King Burhred lead his fyrd against them, and men from the Abbey lands with them. But Burhred thought […]

The Vikings, laden down by loot from Medhamstead Abbey and fleeing the forces of Wessex, pushed into East Anglia to meet up with King Guthrum’s forces who were busy putting down the uprisings there. However, they found themselves slowed by their riches, harried by Englisc and also by those Vikings without treasure. In the ensuing […]

At the end of 874 King Burhred of Mercia was driven out of his kingdom, and the Viking king Ivar Ragnarsson died (see 2014’s Flaunden event). The Vikings crowned Ceolwulf as their puppet in Mercia, and he declared a peace. However, it was not universally respected, as some Mercians did not acknowledge Ceolwulf… Meanwhile the […]

At which the Vikings and Englisc fought a terrible battle, King Burhred of Mercia fled, the Vikings declared Ceolwulf King of Mercia, and the Heathen Host fractured as King Ivar died and they were torn apart by arguments. The red hand of war gripped Mercia. The Great Army seized and fortified Repton – a direct […]

At which the Vikings and Englisc both prepared for the battle to seal the fate of Mercia, and an introspective Viking leader, Ivar the Boneless, asked the assembled forces exactly what they wanted. The war season, 874. The Viking Great Army gathered at Repton in Mercia, home to the burial crypt of the Mercian kings. […]

At which the Vikings used the magic of the Kingslayer to erect a potent nithing-pole inside Burhred’s favourite hunting ground, giving him another blow to his morale and unleashing powerful spirits against him. The start of the war season, 874. It had been a decade since the death of Ragnar Loðbrók led to his sons […]

At which a small group of Vikings raided a monastery on the edge of Wessex, and stole the Kingslayer (the sword that killed the Viking King Bagsecg in one of the few battles where Englisc beat the Vikings), to weaken Mercian resolve and enable a prophecy. Early 874. Over the previous decade, the Vikings had […]

The last DAS event of 2013, Flaunden, was set in 872, when the Vikings fell on London and forced the Mercians to make peace. Forces of King Burhred of Mercia and King Alfred of Wessex (the Cilternsaete and the Sumorsaete) were helping rescue refugees streaming out of London, saving them from marauding bands of Vikings […]

Of Ragnar of Jutland There was a man hight Ragnar, a farmer from near Fyrkat in Jutland. He was a wedded man; he had to wife Gudrun, daughter of Gunni and Sinfjotli, and sister to Ulrik of Ranrike; he had no sons but Ingibjorg was hight his daughter. Ragnar gave his daughter Ingibjorg to Halldor, […]